


Fear Itself? Honey, That's The Least Of Our Problems

by HighlyOpinionatedNerd



Category: Gintama
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Enjoy!, Gintama but make it Scarecrow Fear Toxin, Guerrilla Warfare, Hallucinations, and biological warfare (?), and various mental health issues, it's been too long since I've written angst I'm excited, kinda heavy on the depictions of past traumas, other than that it's just uhhhh, tentative allies to friends to lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-14
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:41:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24023752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HighlyOpinionatedNerd/pseuds/HighlyOpinionatedNerd
Summary: The Shinsengumi and the Yorozuya forge a tentative alliance in the face of a new threat to Earth. But before they can defeat their new enemies, they'll find themselves confronted with all of their deepest, darkest fears brought to life. If they're going to be able to face and overcome all the horrors of their pasts, they'll need to rely on each other.
Relationships: Hijikata Toshirou & Sakata Gintoki, Hijikata Toshirou/Sakata Gintoki
Comments: 23
Kudos: 105





	1. Even The Best Laid Plans Go Out The Window When The Shooting Starts

“I don’t like this, Kondo-san.”

“What choice do we have, Toshi? It’s our duty to protect the people, to be prepared to do whatever it takes to protect the people!”

“I know that. I just don’t like the idea of bringing _them_ into it like this. Their involvement could do us more harm than good, in the long run.”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, Hijikata-san. As long as we live to see the long run, that’s good enough for me.”

“Alright, fine. I’ll agree, for the sake of the peace. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

“I’m not asking you to like it, Toshi. Just help us get through this, and everything’ll be alright, I promise.”

Together Kondo, Hijikata, and Okita walked quickly through the halls of the Shinsengumi headquarters. When they reached the door to Kondo’s office he pushed it open and stepped inside.

“Gintoki?”

“Well it’s about damn time!”

“Ah. Right. Come on, you two.”

“You guys don’t have legal grounds for keeping us here!” Gintoki declared loudly as they entered the room. “We were just passing out flyers!”

“Yeah!” Kagura and Shinpachi chorused loudly.

“If you want to punish anyone, punish the guy who hired us to do the job!”

“Yeah!!!”

“Relax,” Kondo said, moving to sit behind his desk. “You’re not being punished!”

“Oh. Uh...we’re not?”

“No! I hope the officer who escorted you here didn’t give you the wrong impression?”

“Uhhh…..admittedly, he was pretty chill about the whole thing. Perhaps we overreacted.”

“Per _haps_ that’s an understatement,” Hijikata muttered under his breath, rolling his eyes.

“Alright, well, if we’re not under arrest, then why are we here?”

“Because there’s something coming,” Okita said, leaning against the edge of Kondo’s desk and crossing his arms. “Something bad.”

Gintoki frowned. “Another attack on Edo?”

“Another attack on the entire Earth, Danna.”

“Whatever it is, I had nothing to do with this one!”

“Me neither!” Kagura added. “I swear!”

“We know that. We’re not here to blame you.” Kondo paused, considering his next words carefully. “What we want...is your help.”

“...Huh.”

“I’m confused,” Shinpachi spoke up. “Don’t you usually try to keep us out of your business? Are you guys trying for a character redemption arc or something, is that it?”

“Wh..? No! I mean, yes, we do try not to associate with you guys if we can avoid it-”

“Gee, thanks.”

“-but no, there’s no redemption arc!”

“Never too late to try. Okita definitely needs one, at the very least.”

“Shut up, China Girl. This is serious.”

“I know, I was being serious t-”

“How bad,” Gintoki interrupted, still frowning. “What kind of enemy are we talking about here?”

“The worst kind. The human kind.”

“Explain.”

“There’s this gang,” Hijikata began. “Group of thugs who used to live around this area. A few years ago we were on their trail, and we almost caught up to them, but they escaped. Into space.”

“It would seem that they’ve made their fortune out there,” Kondo said wearily, “and are now ready to return home and pick up where they left off, terrorizing innocent people and wreaking general havoc.”

“We wouldn’t ask, normally. But, according to our intel, they have a...well, a not-so-secret weapon.”

“What kind of weapon?”

“Supposedly they picked it up from some far flung alien civilization out there. It’s some sort of gas. Reportedly it...it makes you experience your own worst fear.”

There was a moment of silence in the office as the Yorozuya processed that.

“That shit does sound pretty bad,” Gintoki said after a moment.

“You’ve no idea. The effects are horrifying.”

“I have...three questions.”

“Shoot.”

“How did you get this information?”

“They’ve been _demonstrating_ on every human ship and settlement they can find,” Hijikata spat bitterly. “They want us to know they’re coming. Fear of what that gas does is almost as effective as the actual gas itself. It’s only a matter of time before news spreads that they’re on their way, and when that happens, you can bet there’ll be mass panic.”

“Why hide it in the first place,” Kagura asked, “if you know it’s only a matter of time until the public finds out, anyway?”

“We just want to be as prepared as we can be, when the time comes.”

“Fair. Question number two: what happens when you do get hit with this fear toxin gas? Cause if you know what you’re seeing isn’t real, you can fight it, right? That’s how it always works for Batman.”

“Ok, first of all, it doesn’t work like that. It’s a mind-altering substance, it makes you hallucinate and think your vision is really happening. There’s no getting around that. And second of all, fuck you, you aren’t Batman in this situation!”

“I never said I was!”

“You were thinking it, though! I know you were!”

“I was not!”

“Hijikata-san, you’re not Batman, either. At best, you’re Harvey Bullock.”

“Yeah, uh-huh, and what does that make you? Frank Boles?”

“Enough, you two! Gintoki, we’ve seen proof of what this gas does. I sincerely doubt that any of us would be able to resist it. We’re working on an antidote, but it’ll take time.”

“Wait, ‘we’? We who?”

“There are doctors we trust here on site, in the lab.” Okita said. “We thought they might be targeted at the hospital, so we brought them here.”

“Smart move, I agree.”

“Ask your third question, Danna.”

“Alright. If we do this, if we help you, what’s in it for us?”

“We’ll pay,” Kondo assured him.

“How much?”

“Whatever you ask.”

“You’d really trust us like that? We’ll take you at your word, you know.”

“I know. But I have a feeling we’ll be needing all the help we can get with this one, so. I wanted to be sure to get you on board now, before all hell breaks loose.”

Gintoki sighed, throwing his hands up in apparent exasperation.

“Alright! Fine! We’ll do it.”

“Woah, hang on a minute there, Gin-chan. We will?”

“Yeah, we will?”

“Yes, we will. You heard them say they’ll pay, right?”

“You also heard them say they try not to associate with us if at all possible, right?”

“Face facts, kids. If history teaches us anything, it’s that we would’ve eventually gotten involved in this fear toxin thing anyway, whether we liked it or not. We start now at least we get paid for our efforts, even if we do have to to collaborate with Commissioner Gordon and friends.”

“Hey!”

“I don’t like it, Gin-chan.”

“Me neither.”

“I know. But let’s just, just save the world again before we worry about any of the rest of it, alright?”

“Ugh.”

“Alright. If you think it’s best, Gin-san.”

“You’ve got yourself a deal,” Gintoki said, looking back to Kondo. “What do you want us to do?”

“One of our intel officers will fill you in on everything we know about our enemies. Then, I’d like you to do a little digging of your own. You guys have connections around this town that we don’t. We might learn something valuable.”

“Or we might get nothing.”

“I’m willing to try.”

“Fine.”

“Then we’ll start preparing for the actual invasion. From here, there’s not much we can do but react to their attack, and I want to be ready.”

“Fine. How much time do you think we have?”

“Hard to say. Toshi, what are the latest numbers looking like?”

“They’re close.”

“Great! Well, isn’t that reassuring.” Gintoki stood up. “I can have the word out to the homeless network by sunset, if we start now.”

“Then we start now. Sougo will show you to the records room.”

“Kondo-san,” Hijikata murmured as the Yorozuya left the room following Okita, “I still think this is a bad idea. Trouble follows that man wherever he goes.”

“He has suffered a lot for the sake of peace, Toshi.”

“I know that. I’m just...I’m worried.”

“We’re all worried. Did you see the look on his face? Every man has fears he doesn’t want to face.”

“I just hope we’re making the right decision here. This isn’t going to be easy. And anything that happens to them is on us now, you realize that.”

“Of course I do. But, again, I think it’s a risk we have to take. Listen, will you do me a favor and go check with the lab, please?”

Hijikata sighed. “Alright, fine. Just, when it all goes to shit, don’t say I didn’t try to warn you.”

“They’re led by a samurai named Ranna,” said the Shinsengumi officer in the records room, a rather short man with thick glasses and buck teeth. “She has a reputation for exceptional ruthlessness, even among all the other criminals and gang leaders of her ilk.”

“Ranna? That’s a strange name.”

“What does she look like?”

“See for yourself,” the officer offered, handing Gintoki Ranna’s folder.

“Huh. She doesn’t look especially ruthless to me,” Shinpachi said, peering over Gintoki’s shoulder at the picture paperclipped on top of the records of Ranna’s crimes.

“Beg to differ,” Gintoki grumbled under his breath. “She looks like the kind of person who burns villages to the ground without even stopping to pillage first.”

“Well that’s a bit extreme of an impression, from just one photo.”

“Trust me, I know the type.”

“I’m with Gin-chan,” Kagura said, standing on her tiptoes. “She has creepy eyes. Like my brother.”

“We heard that the Shinsengumi was on her tail, but that she escaped,” Gintoki said to the records officer.

“That’s correct.”

“Do you think it’s possible that she still has allies here on Earth?”

“I think it’s unlikely. They broke into the Terminal and commandeered the ship they escaped on. No one helped them. Their band was generally believed to be fairly small. Although they may well have more members now than they did all those years ago.”

“What else does it say in there?” Kagura asked as Gintoki leafed through the folder.

“It saaaayyyys...that not only is this woman completely brutal, wow, but that she is also very smart and well-experienced.”

“Yikes.”

“Yikes indeed.” Gintoki closed the file and handed it back to the records officer. “Female samurai are few and far between. I’m sure someone around here will remember something about her. We’ll see what we can dig up.”

“Your efforts will be much appreciated.”

“Thanks, officer. Come on gang, roll out. We’ve got some calls to make.”

“So,” Shinpachi said as the three of them started back down the hallway, “what do you think?”

“I think the Shinsengumi are scared. They wouldn’t have risked angering their superiors by reaching out to us, otherwise.”

“I agree.”

“Which makes me think that this is pretty serious. Ranna’s gang apparently caused a lot of trouble, even without the help of any alien super gases.”

“Uh-huh.”

“And I think if I was in her shoes, and also as bonkers as she clearly is, I’d attack Edo first.”

“What? Why?”

“Because this is her homeland. And because if she conquers Edo, she’d have a good foothold to start conquering whatever else she wants.”

“You think she wants to rule the whole world?”

“Yeah.”

“Why would she attack her fellow humans?” Kagura wondered aloud. “It’s horrible to take advantage of a planet that can barely defend itself like that.”

“Like I said. Bonkers.”

“Should we be more worried? This is all moving pretty fast, but I feel like maybe we should be more worried?”

“We should be cautious, sure. But I don’t think we’ll need to worry too too much. I mean, this time isn’t like all the other times. We have time and resources to prepare for this one.”

“Right! Don’t panic, Shinpachi, everything will be ok.”

“We’re gonna go out and talk to our people,” Gintoki said, “and then tomorrow morning, we’re going to come back here and start figuring out what we’re going to do to deal with this situation. Sound good?”

“Sounds good.”

“Good. Let’s get a move on, then.”

Within a week, rumors of Ranna’s imminent arrival began to spread throughout Edo. And sure enough, with those rumors came panic.

It seethed, just under the surface. Though the people went about their daily lives, they did so as if walking on eggshells. Everyone awaited the slightest sign that the attack was upon them. The latest in a string of attacks that threatened to destroy their homes, claim the lives of their loved ones.

The Shinsengumi and their Yorozuya allies worked nonstop, sketching out endless battle plans and strategies. They did their best to project an air of confidence and capability, that they would be able to subdue this new threat with hardly any difficulty at all; mostly for the benefit of the nervous public, but also for themselves, too.

And, for a time, they were almost able to believe it, too.

“Sensei,” Hijikata called as he entered the lab, “any progress today?”

“Ah, Hijikata-san,” said Monoda, the head of the team working on creating an antidote for Ranna’s fear gas, straightening up from where she had been bent over a microscope eyepiece. “We’re not quite there yet, but we’re close. I know we are.”

“You know I have the utmost faith in your abilities, Sensei. But we’re running out of time. It’s not a matter of days until they reach Earth by now, it’s a matter of hours. Maybe less.”

“We just need a little more time,” Monoda insisted. “Now that we’ve isolated the active components in the gas, it’s just trial and error until we discover the proper chemical combination that will counteract- wait, did you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

For a moment the two of them stood in silence, listening closely. Then Hijikata heard it- the telltale, all-to-familiar sound of men running and shouting.

“I think we just ran out of time,” he said, turning back to Monoda. “Have your people grab as much of the research and supplies as they can, we need to get out of here, _now_.”

Monoda looked frightened, but she nodded resolutely and turned to relay his instructions to the rest of the lab staff.

“Kondo-san?” Hijikata said, raising his cell to his ear. “What’s going on?”

“The base is under attack, Toshi,” Kondo’s voice said urgently into his ear. “Where are you?”

“In the lab.”

“Head for the west exit. We’ll meet you on the way.”

“Got it. Monoda-sensei, leave the rest! We go now!”

Hijikata led the medical team through the halls, as fast as he could go without leaving any of them behind. Out here they could hear everything more clearly- the sound of battery weapons raining down over their heads, the calls of men running through the halls in disorganized chaos, a distant alarm ringing insistently somewhere behind them.

“Hijikata,” Gintoki called, waving to him from a little further down the hall.

“Where’s Kondo-san? And Sougo?”

“Here, just ahead.”

“Toshi, is that you? Hurry, we don’t have a lot of time.”

Hijikata turned the corner where Kondo, Okita, and the Yorozuya were waiting for him, and together they ran.

“We underestimated them,” Sougo shouted as they went. “They flew straight into the atmosphere and aimed right at us.”

“They’re trying to take us out, before we even have the chance to fight back.”

“Exactly.”

“We have to get the doctor and her people to safety. Without that antidote, we won’t stand a chance.”

“We should head for the- ah, shit!”

They turned another corner and abruptly found their path blocked by a fire, raging in the hallway up ahead. The smoke was everywhere, obscuring their vision and making it hard to breathe.

“Is there another way out?” Kagura yelled.

“The maintenance corridor,” Kondo yelled back. “Come on, it’s this...Toshi? Toshi! Come one, we have to go!”

Hijikata stood still, frozen in place, staring in horror at the fire.

It was like he had suddenly been thrust into one of his nightmares. He willed himself to move, to tear his eyes away, but he couldn’t. Fear paralyzed him, and although his every instinct was screaming at him to move, to run, to get away, he just...couldn’t.

“What the hell are you doing!” he distantly heard Okita call from somewhere behind him.

“I-I...I c-can’t…” he stammered uselessly as he choked on the smoke, utterly unable to tear himself away from the flames burning their way towards him, bit by bit.

“Hijikata-san!”

“Toshi, come on, move!”

“Toshi!”

“I can’t, I _can’t_ -”

“Hijikata.”

Hijikata started as someone grabbed him by the shoulders and forcibly spun him around.

“Look at me,” Gintoki demanded, gripping him tightly. “Don’t look back, just look at me.”

Hijikata gulped, staring wide-eyed at Gintoki.

“Whatever it is that you’re seeing right now,” Gintoki said, holding his gaze intently, “this isn’t it. That’s over, ok? It’s in the past. This, this is right now. We need you here for this. Ok? Snap out of it, we need to focus on getting out of here. Are you with me?”

“I...I...yes,” Hijikata choked out, mentally shaking himself. “Yes.”

“Come on, then.”

Gintoki took him by the arm and started running, away from the fire, dragging Hijikata with him.

Hijikata shut his eyes and ran, as fast as his shaky legs would carry him, letting Gintoki’s grip guide him.

“They’ll see us once we leave the walls,” he heard Monoda’s voice call from somewhere ahead.

“Not if we can cross the street,” Okita answered. “We can get inside the department store, hide out for a while.”

“No,” Gintoki called, “they’ll just keep bombing. We should go below, into the sewers.”

“What? Are you crazy?!”

“No, Sensei, he’s right. We’ll be safer down there, and they won’t be able to track our movements, either.”

“Our research…!”

“We’ll take it with us!”

“Left here, Hijikata,” Gintoki said more quietly, pulling on his arm. Hijikata followed his lead, eyes still squeezed tight shut.

“There’s a...a manhole cover,” he panted.

“You know one?” Gintoki asked. “Where is it?”

“In the maintenance corridor.”

“That’s good, we won’t even have to leave the base.”

“But the fire-”

“The fire won’t spread that quickly. It won’t touch us. It won’t touch us, Hijikata.”

Hijikata willed himself to open his eyes. They still stung, but the hallway where they were now was relatively free of smoke.

“Anywhere we go, we’ll just be putting more people in danger,” he said.

“Then we’ll go where there aren’t any people. The forest, we can go to the forest.”

Hijikata shook his head. _Forests burn_ , whispered the little voice of terror in the back of his mind.

“We can’t fight from the forest,” he said aloud. “And they’ll find us before long.”

“I know a place.”

“But-”

“Trust me. I’m gonna get you guys through this. But you have to trust me, ok?”

Hijikata closed his eyes again.

“Ok.”

They trekked through the sewers for almost an hour before emerging above ground again, on the outskirts of town, and followed Gintoki’s lead into the treeline.

Even from all that distance away, they could see the smoke rising up from the Shinsengumi headquarters.

“Where exactly are you taking us?” Kondo asked as they made their way through the trees.

“Old, abandoned Joui base.”

“You guys really had a base this close to Edo?”

“We had bases everywhere. It’s nothing special, but it’s well hidden. And it has room for a bunch of people, so. Right now I figure it’s our best option.”

“I want to send out a message,” Kondo said. “To the rest of our officers that made it out. Where should I tell them to meet us?”

“If they can get to the trees safely, there’s a hidden path. See, look. See that tree? There’s a mark, up near that branch.”

“Ah, I see it.”

“If they follow those marks, they’ll find us eventually. All of them are up high. You won’t know they’re there unless you’re looking for them, but once you know, they’re not that hard to spot.”

“I’ll let them know. Thank you, Gintoki.”

“Sure.”

“What do you think the bonkers lady and her crew will do, if they don’t find us?” Kagura piped up.

“Keep looking. Establish a ground base somewhere and make plans to take the rest of the town, but if I were her I’d keep looking for us. Cause as long as we’re out here, out of her sight, we’re a threat. We’ve got a chance, and that’s all we need.”

“I hope so. This won’t be easy, Gin-san.”

“I know that. But it’s also not impossible. Hey, I remember that rock. It should be somewhere around...ah.”

Gintoki jogged a few steps ahead, towards the base of a low hill, and began running his hands over the ground, through the fallen leaves and the roots and the dirt.

“What are we looking for here, Gin-chan?”

“The door is somewhere here. Hang on, here, found it!”

He took hold of what appeared to be just another ordinary tree root, and pulled.

Nothing happened.

“Gin-san?”

“Huh.” Gintoki lifted his foot and stomped down on the ground near the root; sure enough, a hollow sound echoed out, but the hidden door remained shut tight.

“Could there have been a cave-in, or something?” Okita suggested.

“No, it was well reinforced. I can’t think of any reason for the door to be locked, unless….oh, god.”

“What?”

“It’s Zura.”

“It’s not Zura!” a muffled voice called, from down beyond the door while Gintoki rolled his eyes. “It’s Katsura!”

“Gotta admit,” Okita said, “I did not see that one coming.”

“Zura, open the door!”

“No!”

“No?! Zura, goddamn it, we’re on the run here!”

“ _You’re_ the one who agreed to work with the Shinsengumi! It’s your own fault that whoever’s out there is chasing you! They aren’t with you now, are they?”

“Yeah, got ‘em here, and more on the way.”

“What! Gintoki, you’ve given away the location of our most well-hidden and defendable safe house!”

“I did it ‘cause their base just got burned down around them, and they need a well-hidden and defendable safe house, you loon! Open the fucking door!”

“No!”

“If I could-”

“No, you may not!”

“Stay out of this, Kondo, let me deal with him. Look, Zura. Can’t we call a temporary truce? I can vouch that the Shinsengumi’ll keep their word. There’s more at stake than you realize here, ok? Just let us in, let us take care of Ranna, and then everything will go back to normal.”

“Ranna? Who’s that?”

“If you don’t open the door, I won’t tell you. And I won’t tell you about her secret weapon, either.”

There was a moment of silence from inside the bunker base. Kondo raised an eyebrow skeptically at Shinpachi, who just shrugged.

“...Alright, very well. Temporary truce, Kondo?”

“Truce,” Kondo called.

“Stand back, I’m opening the door now.”

“The naturally curious are easily manipulatable,” Gintoki said smugly.

“Well done, Gintoki. We won’t forget this.”

“Sure. Just do me a favor and don’t pick a fight, alright? Tell him what he wants to know, and settle the terms of the truce, and everything will work out.”

“Can do. Come on, Sougo.”

“You’ll be safe here,” Gintoki assured Monoda and the rest of her team as they filed past him, down into the hidden base after Kondo. “You guys should rest, but the sooner you can set up and keep working on that antidote, the better. Hijikata, is that everyone?”

“Yeah, everyone that was with us,” Hijikata said, bringing up the rear. “I heard arguing? What was that about?”

“Zura.”

“Zura? You mean Kotaro Katsura?”

“Yep. He’s agreed to a truce, so please, will you just leave him be? He can help us.”

Hijikata sighed. “Not seeing that I have much of a choice here.”

“Just until this is all over. Then you can go back to chasing him, and keeping us at arm’s length. Just like normal.”

“Yeah. Normal.” Hijikata hesitated for a second, biting his lip. “Listen, Yoro- Gintoki. Back there, with the fire, that was-”

“Man, it’s ok. You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

“Oh. You sure?”

“Everyone here’s got shit that stops them in their tracks. I’ve been there plenty of times. Too many times, really. I know what it’s like. You don’t have to apologize for it, either,” he added as Hijikata opened his mouth again. “Dude, it’s fine. Whatever it is that’s haunting you, you just need space and time to deal with it.”

“Oh, is that all it takes?” Hijikata asked wryly. “You’d have thought I’d had enough space and time by now.”

“It’s not about what happened in the fire,” Gintoki said. “The fire’s over, and you’re still here. You made it out alive. That’s what’s important.”

“I know that. I know.”

“When this is all over and you think you know where you stand, if you still want to talk about it then? I’ll listen.”

“...Really?”

“Yeah. I mean, I might not be able to, like, actually help at all? But, like I said. I can relate.”

Hijikata nodded slowly. “Alright. I might take you up on that offer.”

“We’ll have our own little trauma support group night,” Gintoki promised mock-solemnly. “I’ll bring the booze.”

Hijikata smiled. Kinda. His smiling muscles weren’t reacting quite the way they normally did.

“Thanks. Alright, come on then, we should get inside. We have a lot of work to do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Thanks for reading the first chapter of Fear Itself! Off to a good start, I hope...? There will be four chapters to this one in all, and before we're through, I'm afraid all our favorite characters are in for _quite_ a ride! I'm excited to be sharing it with you guys : D


	2. Old Habits Die Hard, And Even After You Think You've Killed Them, Sometimes They Can Still Come Back From The Dead

Very little had changed about Edo in the time that Ranna had been gone. 

It was humid this time of year. In the night, when it was cool, great heavy clouds of fog gathered and hung about everywhere, making you feel like you were swimming on dry land when you stepped out in it. When the sun rose, the temperature rose with it, and the fog clouds dispersed, only to reform when the sun set again.

The skyline, as viewed from atop her ship (which they had landed directly on top of the ruined Shinsengumi base), was almost exactly as she remembered it.

The people were largely the same, too. No one had challenged her, and no one had come out to beg for their lives to be spared, either. They just watched, waiting to see what she would do.

How nice it was to know that some things never changed.

“Hey, Ranna,” called one of her lieutenants, sticking his head up through the rooftop access hatch. “Patrol just got back in. Still no sign of the Shinsengumi.”

“ _Still_? Damn, it’s been three whole days! I guess their commanders are a little more resourceful than I gave ‘em credit for.”

“We looked all over the place, honest!”

“I believe you. They’re probably hiding out in those woods over there, which is why we haven’t come across ‘em yet.”

“The woods, eh? That’s tough. Whaddaya wanna do?”

“Hm.”

Ranna paused, lips pursed in thought, as her gaze drifted back to the Edo city skyline silhouetted against the rising sun, wreathed in lingering swaths of fog.

“We do what we did on Vespta,” she said decisively. “Wait til dark, and launch the heat-detecting probes. We’ll find where they’re hiding that way, and then we’ll gas ‘em out.”

“I’ll make the preparations, then.”

“Send the next patrol shift back out, while you’re at it,” she shouted over her shoulder. “They walk the streets, this time. Make sure the stubborn assholes in this town all know that we mean business, and that we’re here to stay.”

“You got it.”

He disappeared belowdeck again, and Ranna sighed. Her glorious homecoming conquest wasn’t going quite the way she had planned. She had hoped to already have taken the shogun’s palace, by this point.

But it was no matter. Another day of waiting, and whatever pitiful few Shinsengumi were still out there would no longer be a threat. And from there, as far as she was concerned, it was only a matter of time until the Earth was hers.

And for a prize like that, she could afford to wait one more day.

“Hello Shinpachi, Kagura.”

“Hello, Kondo-san.”

“Monoda said not to bother her, Kondo.”

“Oh.” Kondo stopped short. “She did?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“We asked if we could do anything to help, and all she said was, ‘you can keep people from coming over here to interrupt us.’ So that’s what we’re doing.”

“Oh,” Kondo said again, glancing over at the corner where the medical team had set up their equipment. “Well, I guess I won’t bother them, then.”

“I don’t quite understand what it is they’re trying to do,” Shinpachi admitted, “but I think they must be almost done by now. Or at least, it seems that way.”

“I hope so,” Kondo said, sitting down on the floor opposite Shinpachi and Kagura. “The longer this drags on, the more worried I am about the situation out there.”

“They’ll be ok,” Kagura said confidently. “There are more people besides us who can fight out there, and they can hold their own against Ranna without us for a little bit if they need to.”

“My sister and Sadaharu are staying with Kyuubei-san until this is all over,” Shinpachi said. “The Yagyu home basically doubles as a fortified base all on its own, so they’ll be fine.”

“Otose-san and Catherine have Tama to protect them, so I’m thinking they’ll be fine, too.”

“Ranna probably won’t even know Sa-chan-san and Zenzou-san are there, if they don’t want her to. Tsukuyo-san’s people, too.”

“Soyo-chan has a whole team of security protecting her, and dozens of secret passages out of the palace if she needs them, so I’m not worried about her.”

“The only person I am kind of concerned about is Hasegawa-san.”

“Don’t be stupid, Shinpachi. That Madao has survived a million things that would have killed anybody else. He’s like a human cockroach. I’m sure he’ll be ok.”

Kondo laughed. “Well, when you put it like that, I’m certainly reassured that we’ve left Edo in safe hands until we’re able to return. Which hopefully won’t be long, if Monoda-sensei and her crew are almost finished.”

“Yeah, hopefully. It feels like it’s been three weeks, not just three days. Are all long-scale invasions this boring?”

“No, most are much more...exciting. Trust me, I like it better boring.”

“I’m with Kagura-chan on this one. I’m not saying I’d rather be stuck in a burning building, but I do wish we were doing something other than just waiting.”

The three of them lapsed into silence for a moment, sharing a wistful sigh.

“We could play cards?” Kondo offered.

“Cards? Are there cards here?”

“Yes, I found out from some of Katsura’s men that they keep a few decks here.”

“Do we have Uno?” Kagura asked excitedly. “I’ve always wanted the chance to kick Okita’s butt at Uno.”

“I don’t know. Let’s go find out, shall we?”

“No.”

“I’m telling you, it’ll work!”

“And I’m telling _you_ , no, it won’t! This woman isn’t _like_ all the amanto we fought in the war, Zura.”

“So you keep saying. And yet! You have yet to provide me with a reason this strategy won’t work on her!”

“The whole comparison that I’m trying to make right now is that she’s smart!!! Way smart, ok, crazy smart!”

“You can’t be smart and also do something as stupid as try to take over Earth single-handedly,” Katsura scoffed.

“Yes, yes, yes you can,” Gintoki insisted. “All she has is that one tiny little ship and a couple dozen men, and you can already see what she’s done with just that! She’s not stupid enough to fall for a completely obvious ambush setup like that!”

“You don’t really know that until we give it a try!”

“You fucking idiot, I’m telling you that yes! I! _Do_!”

Katsura threw up his hands in exasperation. “At least I’m trying to come up with a plan, here!”

“I do have a plan, and my plan is ‘wait for Monoda-sensei and her crew to give me medicine that will make me invulnerable to Scarecrow toxin’.”

“We can’t wait forever! Sooner than later she’s going to snap and do something drastic.”

“I know that. But until we can be sure we’ll even be able to stand against her on equal footing, I’m not risking it. Besides, we won’t need to wait forever. They’re working on it.”

“I _know_ they are,” Katsura sighed. “I just...I don’t want to be sitting here doing nothing anymore.”

“You could make yourself useful and go see how our food supplies are holding up,” Gintoki suggested.”

“Ugh. Fine. In the meantime, you make yourself useful too and keep thinking up some battle strategies, alright?”

“Bring me any chocolate you find,” Gintoki said as Katsura stood up from the little table they had been sharing. “Please?”

“There’s no chocolate, and you already know that!”

“Alcohol, then!”

Katsura rolled his eyes and walked away, choosing not to dignify that last request with an answer. On his way he passed Hijikata, approaching Gintoki with a troubled look on his face.

“Hey, uh...Gintoki.”

“Toshirou. We’re on a first name basis now, are we?”

“Are we? I just thought maybe I should call you that because that’s what Kondo-san calls you. Since, you know, we’re allies now.”

“Fine by me. Honestly, I prefer it that way. You?”

“I don’t care.”

“Toshirou, then.”

“Whatever. Is this seat taken?”

“Nope, all yours. What’s up?”

“If I have to spend one more moment in the same room as that duck thing,” Hijikata hissed quietly, sliding into the chair Katsura had just vacated, “I’m going to absolutely lose my mind.”

“Elizabeth is harmless, dude. Well, mostly.”

“I can’t ever tell what it’s thinking.”

“He only listens to Zura, and Zura’s cooperating with the truce, so I think you’re good.”

“Mmmm.”

“Though I think he is going a little stir crazy. Zura, I mean.”

“Aren’t we all.”

“Yeah. For me it’s kinda...well. Nevermind.”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“No, really, what?”

Gintoki grimaced. “I don’t like being back here. I don’t like feeling like I’m back in the war again.”

“Oh.”

“I keep catching myself thinking about things I haven’t thought about in years. Stupid stuff. Zura keeps using, like, the names of old strategies we used to use. Slang I haven’t heard in forever. All his people use it too. It’s, uh...not fun. I don’t want to be the person I was back then again, and I don’t want to be reminded of him, either.”

Hijikata blinked. He had never heard Gintoki speak about the Joui War before. He had always got the feeling that it wasn’t a particularly easy topic for him to talk about. Judging by the way Gintoki was avoiding eye contact with him now, it seemed like he’d been right.

“Things are different now,” he assured him, as confidently as he could muster. “You’ve got us, this time.”

“Well, there is that.”

“Between you, us, and Kotaro’s men, Ranna doesn’t stand a chance. It won’t be long before this is all over.”

“Here’s hoping. Hey, you’re the plan guy in the Shinsengumi, aren’t you? You got any ideas how we’re going to take her down?”

“I don’t know. It’s not that I haven’t been thinking about it, it’s just that everything I come up with seems...desperate? Foolhardy? Something, something not good.”

“Can’t be any worse than Zura’s ridiculous ambush plans. Besides, I’ll take any distraction I can get right now. Go on, tell me.”

After a quick headcount, it was determined that there was barely enough food left in the base to last through the day.

“The antidote is almost finished,” Gintoki pointed out. “We should be able to make our move tomorrow.”

“An army can’t march on an empty stomach,” Katsura insisted, and promptly set about organizing an expedition to town for more resources.

Gintoki just rolled his eyes. As much as he thought it was a bad idea, he knew that most of the men- Shinsengumi and Joui rebels alike- were as tired of being cooped up as Katsura was, and that it was probably for the best that he just let them go.

Kondo seemed to share his sentiment. He gave his permission for some of his men to go along with Katsura, but had the good sense to keep from joining in himself, allowing Katsura to have total,unrivaled control of the situation. Although he did send Okita with them, just to keep an eye on things.

So it was that evening found the little forest bunker base all but empty. Most of the men had chosen to go out to town, leaving behind just a few to stand guard.

And thus, when Monoda and her team triumphantly announced the completion of their work, the only people around to bear witness were Kondo, Hijikata, Gintoki, Kagura, and Shinpachi, in the middle of their nineteenth consecutive game of Go Fish.

“You did it? Well done, Monoda!”

“Yeah, congratulations! Toshi, hand over all your threes.”

“Not now, Kagura. Let me see this,” Hijikata said, standing up. “You’re sure this will work?”

“It’ll work. Of course, it would be more effective in the form of an injection, like a vaccine. But we didn’t have the tools we needed to make that a viable option right now, so we made these instead,” Monoda explained, handing him one of the antitoxin patches. “Just peel and stick. The effect should last anywhere between four and five hours.”

“Fantastic. Thank you, Sensei, really. We owe you guys so much.”

“Just doing our job, sir,” Monoda said, smiling.

“As soon as there are enough for everyone, you and your team will finally be able to get some well-deserved res-”

“Kondo-san! Hijikata-san!” one of the guards shouted suddenly, skidding into view in the doorway. “Trouble!”

“What is it,” Kondo shouted back, dropping his cards and jumping to his feet, “what’s wrong?”

“It’s the enemy, sir! They’ve found us!”

“What! How?”

“I don’t know, but they’re heading right for us! They know we’re here! What do we do, sir?”

“Run,” Gintoki yelled, scrambling up. “We’re outnumbered and in no position to fight. Run, go, go!”

The guard vanished out of sight again, clearly not needing to be told twice.

“Let’s go,” Hijikata said, grabbing Monoda’s arm and ushering her towards the exit.

“Gin-chan?” Kagura asked, sounding worried.

“Us too, Kagura. Come on, go. We split up for now, and regroup later when it’s safe, ok?”

“Shit,” Kondo cursed as they emerged out into the forest, and several flashlight beams came cutting through the trees, searching for them. “They’re already on us!”

“There they are!” One of Ranna’s men shouted! “Hit ‘em with the gas!”

“Scatter!” Gintoki instructed, and they took off running.

The night was dark, and visibility was further impaired by the seasonal clouds of fog. The underbrush was treacherously slippery underfoot, and the tree branches buffeted him, leaving long scratches across his face, his arms, his legs. But he kept running.

He could _feel_ the gas starting to catch up with him. The leaves on the trees around him shuddered audibly, and there was a chill in the air that left him gasping for breath, his heart hammering painfully fast and hard in his chest.

He turned to look over his shoulder, hoping against hope that no one was following him-

-and when he turned back again, his path was blocked by an impenetrable wall of raging fire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The stuff in this chapter about the fog is all very real. I grew up in Florida, where it's always super duper humid, and in order to catch my bus to school I was often up before sunrise. It's actually a really cool little phenomenon, and I still think about it a lot.
> 
> Thanks for reading chapter 2! Next chapter we'll get to the part you've all been waiting for, I promise ; )


	3. Starve Your Fears

Hijikata gasped, recoiling from the fire. Fought to control the panic rising in his chest, searching frantically for a way through.

But there wasn’t one. The flames stretched on as far as he could see in either direction, completely blocking any chance of escape.

He had no choice, then. He was going to have to make a stand and fight.

He turned back, fumbling to draw his sword as he did so. The firelight cast strange, flickering shadows everywhere, making it seem as if the whole forest was swaying and jumping around him.

Hijikata willed himself to take deep breaths, to stay in control. He couldn’t afford to let it end like this. Not here, not now, not when they were so close to turning it all around. He couldn’t afford to let his fear of the fire get the better of him this time.

“Toshirou,” he suddenly heard someone call his name, and he started, wildly swinging his sword around in the direction of the sound.

“H-hello? Who’s there?”

“Toshirou,” the voice repeated weakly, “Toshirou…!”

There was someone on the ground just a short distance away, he could see now. Cautiously he took a few steps forward.

“Toshirou…”

“B...Brother? Is that you?”

Hijikata flinched as his older brother raised his head. His eyes were gouged and bleeding freely, just as they had once been in a different fire, long ago.

“Toshirou, how could you…”

“Brother, what happened to you? How are you here? I don’t underst-”

“Toshi!”

“Ah!”

Hijikata whipped around again. There was another figure staggering into view, leaning against a tree for support.

“Kondo-san! Are you alright?” Hijikata reached out a hand to Kondo, but jumped back in horror as he realized that Kondo’s eyes had been gouged out, too.

“Toshi...stay away…” he groaned.

“N-no, Kondo-san, let me help-”

“Don’t touch him!”

Hijikata spun around for a third time, and this time he could see Okita, clumsily and blindly shielding a woman behind him. After a moment, Hijikata recognized his sister, Mitsuba. Both of their eyes had been taken, as well.

“Sougo! Mitsuba!”

“Keep away!” Okita insisted. “Murderer!”

“What?!”

“You did this!”

“No,” Hijikata said. Abruptly, he realized that there was blood dripping from his blade, and he had no memory of how it had got there. “No! I didn’t...It wasn’t me!”

He turned back, desperate for a way out, but no matter where he looked, all he saw was more of his friends and allies emerging from the trees, bleeding and wailing his name. And all the while, the fire was burning its way closer, and closer, and closer.

“Toshirou, why? Why?”

“Hijikata-san….”

“It hurts!”

“Toshi, how could you do this?”

“I’m sorry,” Hijikata choked out. “I’m so sorry, I never meant to hurt you, any of you! Please, I don’t know what to do, I don’t know how to help you!”

“Hijikata-san!”

Suddenly he felt someone grab his arm and he cried out, struggling against their grip.

“No! Let me go!”

“Hijikata-san, it’s me! It’s Monoda!”

“M-Monoda…?”

Slowly, warily, Hijikata opened his eyes and looked around. The fire was gone. There was no one else in sight, except for Monoda, who was in fact the one holding his arm.

“I d-don’t...I don’t understand,” he said feebly. “The f-fire…”

“There never was any fire, Hijikata-san,” Monoda said. “It was just a hallucination.”

There was one of the antidote patches on his arm, he realized. Monoda must have put it there. He swallowed and looked down at his sword- no blood.

“W...Where are the others?”

“I don’t know,” Monoda said. She seemed just as frightened as he was. “I’m not sure, but I don’t think there’s anyone actually still following us. Do you think they’re afraid of their own gas?”

Hijikata shook his head. “They don’t know we have the cure. They think it’s safe to just leave us to our fates out here.”

“That’s horrible.”

“How many more of those things do you have?”

“O-oh, uh...nine, I think?”

“That’s enough. We need to find the others, now.”

“Will you be alright?”

“I’m fine,” Hijikata lied. In truth, he felt like he was going to throw up. His legs were jello beneath him, barely able to support his weight. But he didn’t want to stop, he didn’t want to be left alone with the fear vision that the gas had brought to life in his mind, for even a second.

And he wasn’t going to let any of the others suffer alone like that, either. Not if there was anything he could do about it.

One by one, Hijikata and Monoda tracked down their comrades and administered the antidote.

The effects of the gas were strange to see from an outside perspective. They found Kondo cowering and sobbing inarticulately on the ground, but Kagura screaming and lashing out at people they couldn’t see. She fought them, at first- it took all Hijikata’s strength to hold her still long enough for Monoda to get the patch on her. Shinpachi fought them too- his visions had kept him running, chasing him through the trees like some twisted, perilous game of hide and seek.

They found the officers who had been guarding the base, too. Finally, the only one missing was Gintoki.

“Monoda, stay here with the others,” Hijikata said. “I’m going after him.”

“I’m coming too,” Kagura insisted. Her voice was rough and raw- she had shouted herself hoarse.

“And me,” Shinpachi said. He was still trembling, leaning on Kagura for support.

“No. You guys need to stay here, too.”

“Gin-chan needs us!”

“The two of you can barely stand,” Hijikata said, perhaps a bit more harshly than he meant to. “You need to stay here, where it’s safe, and recover.”

“But-”

“ _No_ , Kagura. Come on, you know he would never forgive me for bringing you two into danger.”

Hijikata didn’t know what scared a man like Gintoki. But he had the feeling that, whatever it was, he wouldn’t want his kids to see it. He kept that part to himself, though.

“Stay here. I’ll find Gintoki, and I’ll bring him back safely. I promise.”

Shinpachi closed his eyes. “...Alright. Please hurry, Hijikata-san.”

“Please,” Kagura echoed quietly.

Hijikata nodded. He exchanged one last silent look with Kondo, and then straightened back up once again. His body protested- his every muscle ached from tension. But he pushed through it.

They still had one friend that needed saving.

Gintoki remembered the last time he had run through this forest. The memories smashed their way through into his consciousness, demanding his attention, even as he tried to push them away. It had been raining that day. Men yelling, shots ringing out, swords clashing, the cries of the fallen left behind as they ran, retreating in the face of a battle hopelessly lost.

He squeezed his eyes shut and held his head low as he ran. He wanted to believe Hijikata’s words, that things were different this time around. That this time, they’d all make it out ok.

But the memories in his head warned differently.

He kept running, until out of nowhere his foot caught on a fallen branch and sent him sprawling to the ground.

And when he opened his eyes again, he found that he had broken the treeline and emerged onto a flat, barren, rocky field.

Gintoki froze. He knew this scenery, too, knew what it meant for him to be seeing it again here, now.

Slowly, he raised his head and saw exactly the scene he had been dreading. There were Naraku all around him, unmistakable with their robes and golden staves. There were Katsura and Takasugi, tied up on the ground a few feet away.

And there, in front of him, was Shouyou’s lifeless, headless body.

Gintoki shut his eyes again.

“What have you done,” Takasugi demanded, his voice strained, “Gintoki, what have you done?!”

“No no no no no, no, it’s not real, it’s not real…”

“You killed Shouyou!”

“This isn’t happening, it’s not real…!”

“How _could_ you!”

“I h-had to,” Gintoki said, feeling tears starting to well unbidden at the corners of his eyes. “I had to! They were going to kill you! Please, I-”

“Gintoki, you fool,” Katsura interrupted him. “They just told you what you wanted to hear! You think you’ve saved us? _They’re still going to kill us_.”

“What? No...no, no, we had a deal!”

“This is all your fault,” Takasugi spat. “If you hadn’t been so stupid, we still might have been able to escape! You’ve doomed us all!”

“No,” Gintoki insisted, “you’re wrong! They can’t- ah!”

He tried to get to his feet, but before he knew it the Naraku were on him, holding him down.

“Let go of me! We had a deal! Let them go!”

“Gin-chan!”

“Wh- Kagura?”

Gintoki looked around to see a tall, furred amanto approaching, dragging Shinpachi and Kagura with him.

“Kagura! Shinpachi!”

“Caught these two like rats in a trap,” he said to one of the Naraku, with a smile full of too-sharp teeth. “We’ll have the others soon, too.”

“Gin-san,” Shinpachi called, “h-help us, please!”

“Let them go,” Gintoki pled. “They have nothing to do with this!”

The Naraku leader sneered at him. “You misunderstand,” he hissed. “You had your chance. You should have left well alone after Shouyou died. This is punishment, for everything you’ve done since.”

“No, no, please-”

“Time after time, you oppose us,” the big amanto added. “You alone stand in our way! You alone resist! Did you think we would just let you go, oh great protector of Earth? Oh no, we have you now. Here is your reward, samurai: you’re going to watch everyone you’ve ever cared about die, starting with these two.”

“ _No_!”

Gintoki strained against the Naraku holding him, but they were stronger than he was.

“Gin-chan,” Kagura sobbed, “stop them! Please!”

“It’s me you want,” Gintoki shouted, “not them! Let them go, please, _please_! Take me, kill me instead!”

“Oh, don’t you worry,” the Naraku said smugly, watching him struggle in vain. “We intend to. But first? We’re going to _break you_.”

Gintoki had outrun all the rest of them, delving deep into the heart of the forest. Hijikata could hear him long before he could see him, and he followed the sound of his desperate, heartbroken cries through the trees.

Finally he caught sight of him, on the ground, tangled in the underbrush.

“Gintoki!”

“Let them go,” Gintoki yelled, staring past Hijikata at someone he couldn’t see, tears streaming down his face. “Please, j-just, kill me instead, _please_!”

“Oh, Gintoki…”

Hijikata hurried over to Gintoki’s side and kicked at the brittle, spindly plants he’d fallen into. Gintoki cried out and just struggled harder.

“Stay still! Let me help you!”

“No! Don’t!”

Hijikata dived in and caught Gintoki in a bear hug. Gintoki _screamed_ , like a wounded animal, and fought against him, but Hijikata hung on, and eventually he managed to reach up and slap one of Monoda’s antitoxin patches onto Gintoki’s neck.

For a moment, Gintoki continued to struggle against him. But then the antidote kicked in and he collapsed, sobbing, into Hijikata’s arms.

“It’s alright, it’s alright, it’s ok,” Hijikata chanted, holding him tightly. “I’ve got you. Everything’s alright now.”

The two of them stayed like that for what felt like a long time. Clinging to each other in the dark, Hijikata murmuring reassurances in Gintoki’s ear and blinking back tears of his own all the while. Until eventually, Gintoki’s crying began to subside.

“Sh...Shinpachi,” he muttered when he was able to speak again, “Kagura?”

“They’re safe,” Hijikata assured him, and he could _feel_ Gintoki’s relief. “They got a lungful of gas too, but they’re alright now. I left them with Kondo and Monoda.”

“Thank you,” Gintoki said, his voice muffled against Hijikata’s shoulder. “I-I’m….I’m sorry you had to see that.”

“Remember what you told me after the fire? It’s over, Gintoki. It’s over, and you made it out.”

“You know as damn well as I do,” Gintoki said, finally pulling away from Hijikata, “that it’s not about what you made it out with as much as it is about what you had to leave behind. What you lost.”

“...Come on, we should be getting back to the others. Can you stand?”

“I think so.”

Gintoki shakily got to his feet, and almost immediately pitched over sideways.

“Whoa, there,” Hijikata said, hurriedly reaching out to steady him. “Here, lean on me.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t mention it. Come on, let’s get you back.”

Gintoki and Hijikata slowly made their way back through the woods to the clearing where Hijikata had left the others. When they saw the two of them approaching, Kagura and Shinpachi jumped up and ran out to meet them, tackling Gintoki in a hug so hard that all three of them nearly fell over.

Gintoki wordlessly wrapped his arms around them and squeezed tight, burying his face in Kagura’s hair.

“Sougo,” he heard Hijikata say, “you’re here? What happened?”

“We came back and found the base empty,” Okita’s voice explained from somewhere off to Gintoki’s left. “So we sent out scouts looking for you guys.”

“Ranna’s people?”

“Already gone by the time we got back. Now that you and Danna are here, we should get inside- it’s safer there.”

The next few hours were a blur to Gintoki. He remembered Kondo and Katsura and a couple of other people talking to him, but none of what was said. No doubt it was all incredibly important stuff, regarding their plans to fight Ranna. He was simply too tired to be able to take any of it in.

Only once they were finally done talking were the lights inside the base put out, and the men sent to their bunks for the remainder of the night.

The Yorozuya had been offered bunks of their own, too, of course. But tonight, they opted instead to lay their blankets out on the floor in the main room and sleep all together. Kagura nestled herself up against Gintoki’s chest, and Shinpachi curled up on her other side. The two tired kids were asleep within moments of lying down.

But Gintoki found that, now that he was actually ready to sleep, he was suddenly completely, undeniably, unrelentingly awake. His brain was in a million different places at once, and sleep was further away than ever.

He lay like that for about half an hour, chasing his thoughts in circles and hoping that his brain would eventually wear itself out. And he was just starting to doze off, when he saw a door open further down the hallway, and someone slip quietly out through it.

“Toshirou?” he asked, squinting through the dark.

“Ack!...Jesus fuck, you scared me.”

“Sorry,” Gintoki said, pushing himself up into as much of a sitting position he could get to without disturbing Kagura.

“It’s fine. I’m sorry too, I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“Don’t worry about it. What are you doing up?”

“Oh, uh...well, y’know.” Hijikata shrugged irritably, grimacing. “Having a little trouble sleeping, is all.”

“Come join us, then.”

“What?”

“There’s safety in numbers, you know. It’ll help trick your brain into falling asleep faster.”

“Oh, no, I wouldn’t want to impose…”

“Dude. It’s no big deal. Get your ass over here.”

Hijikata just stared at him for a moment. The look on his face said that he didn’t really like the idea of climbing into bed with the Yorozuya, but that he was too tired to argue about it anyway.

“......Fine.”

“Here,” Gintoki said, gesturing, “little trick from the Joui War: you lay down back to back with someone else, and then if anyone comes to try to attack you in your sleep, the other person will feel it right away and wake up.”

“That makes a lot of sense, actually,” Hijikata said, laying down and pressing his back against Gintoki’s as he had indicated. “Were you ever woken up that way?”

“Two or three times, yeah. Lived to tell the tale.”

“Real tried and tested technique, then, huh.”

“Yeah. You got enough blanket over there?”

“I do. Hey, Gintoki?”

“Mm?”

“Thanks.”

“Sure. Now shut up and go to sleep, already.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> : )
> 
> It was interesting to play with some ideas for the different characters' worst fears. I like the idea that Hijikata's and Gintoki's sort of parallel each other, with the difference being that Hijikata is afraid of _directly_ harming those close to him, while Gintoki is more afraid of his people being hurt because of their _relationship_ to him. (Regardless of anything, I'm just glad I looked up Shouyou's death scene for reference before writing this chapter, because apparently I've been misremembering it this whole time!)


	4. You Don't Get To Choose What Happens In Your Future, Only The People You'll Share It With

“I think,” Hijikata said carefully over breakfast the next morning, “that I may have a plan. Or at least, the beginnings of one.”

“To fight Ranna?” Okita asked around a bite of food.

“Yes.”

“Elaborate,” Katsura said, gesturing with his chopsticks.

“Ok, here’s the thing. She was able to find us here somehow, but she thinks she took out those of us that were here last night.”

“Right, ‘cause she doesn’t know we have Monoda-sensei’s cure.”

“Calling it a ‘cure’ isn’t really entirely accur-”

“Oh, it’s close enough, Sensei. Go on, Toshi.”

“So, at most, she thinks there’s like, a handful of disorganized Shinsengumi left out there to resist, agreed?”

“Yeah. So?”

“So, there’s something else we have that she doesn’t know about, something even more important.”

“And that is?”

“Katsura.”

Gintoki nodded. “I see what you’re saying. We’ve got numbers on her.”

“Right. So, if we were to send out, say, even just a dozen of our men to draw her out-”

“-the rest would be able to swoop in and catch her by surprise. Nice thinking, Toshirou.”

“How come you support his ambush plan, but not mine?”

“Zura, your plan was stupid. This might actually work, though, if we play our cards right.”

“What about the gas?” Monoda asked.

“What about it? We have the patches, don’t we?”

“We have some. But not enough for everyone here. And, there’s another problem, too- those who’ve been exposed to the gas once already are more susceptible to a second attack, even with the antitoxin.”

“That is in fact a problem! Why the hell didn’t you mention this earlier?”

“I wasn’t exposed to the gas,” Okita spoke up. “And neither was Katsura-san. We’ll lead the assault squad, and the rest of you can back us up. Even if we don’t manage to neutralize all their weapons in the initial attack, by the time you guys join in they won’t have the time to use ‘em anyway.”

“We’ll need to plan this thing just right,” Katsura warned. “We won’t get a second shot at something like this.”

“Oi,” Gintoki shouted over his shoulder in the direction of the doorway, “Shinpachi!”

“What!” Shinpachi’s voice answered from somewhere out of sight down the hall.

“Bring us a map of the city!”

“A what?”

“A _map_! Off the desk in the last room on the right!”

“Alright, alright, I’m going.”

“Question,” Gintoki said, turning back to face the others again. “What’s the end result here? If we’re able to beat Ranna’s people, what do we do with them? They blew up the jail.”

“Mmm. I don’t suppose the Joui have any secret holding facilities lying around.”

“Nope.”

“We could bring them to the court house,” Okita suggested. “They got a handful of secure holding cells there.”

“Yeah, that should be enough room,” Hijikata said thoughtfully. “A couple days is all it’ll take to get transfer orders in place. The court house should serve well enough til then.”

“Here,” Shinpachi said, approaching them with a rolled up map, “is this what you wanted?”

“Yeah, thanks.”

“Shinpachi, start spreading the word, everyone needs to be ready to move out at a moment’s notice today.”

“Do we have a plan?”

“We’re working on it.”

“That’s great! Let me know if you need anything else.”

“Sure, thanks.”

“Let’s see,” Katsura said, unrolling the map. “Where should we set up this little trap of ours, then?”

“I don’t like this.”

“You know, I hear you say that a lot. Don’t you ever do anything that you do like?”

“Ha ha, very funny.”

“Just saying, man. You’ll live longer if you actually enjoy your life. That’s what they say, isn’t it?”

“I’ve never heard anyone say that.”

“Oh. Maybe I made it up then.”

“I think you definitely did.”

“Doesn’t mean it isn’t true, though. I could really be on to something here.”

Hijikata rolled his eyes. “This is literally the worst place to launch an ambush from that we could have possibly picked.”

“This was the only choice we had,” Gintoki reminded him. “Only place with both enough shelter to keep us out of view until they get here, and room enough to actually fight in once we get up in there. Unless you would rather fight them in the forest? Get your sword stuck in a tree mid-swing and get stabbed by some guy in a gas mask for your troubles?”

“We should have drawn them away to the other side of town,” Hijikata insisted. “The plaza, or the park.”

“Too risky. You _know_ that. You know this was the only viable option.”

“Well, even so. I don’t like it.”

“I don’t know what you want from me, then, Toshirou.”

“Do you trust him? Katsura?”

“Yes. That doesn’t mean I’m not worried, though.”

“Great. Very reassuring.”

“About our part, I mean. I’m worried about nabbing all of these fuckers in one go. Because if even a single one of them gets away, it’ll be us in the position they’re in right now.”

“I know.”

“And I’m worried about the gas. I don’t think I can take another visit to the fearscape without completely losing my mind.”

“It won’t happen,” Hijikata said determinedly. “That’s the one thing I won’t let happen. No one else is going to have to go through that. Not this time.”

“Here’s hoping.”

“They’re coming!” hissed one of the Shinsengumi officers closest to the street. “Get ready!”

Gintoki and Hijikata readied their swords, awaiting the signal to jump out from behind their cover and join the battle.

“Watch your back out there,” Hijikata said quietly.

“You too.”

“Steady,” said the officer near the street, “steady….. _Now_!”

With a cry, the men surged forward, running out to meet Ranna’s forces head on. And Hijikata and Gintoki ran with them, emerging side by side from the dimness of the building they’d been sheltering in, out into the daylit street to join the fray.

The battle was, fortunately, a short one. The Shinsengumi-Yorozuya-Joui Rebel alliance had Ranna’s entire force bound and on their way to the improvised holding facility inside an hour. Ranna herself put up quite a fight, but in the end Kondo and Katsura, working together, were the ones to take her out. One of Katsura’s men notably described it as ‘a moment that would go down in history as a victory won by men of differing ideals united against a common enemy’.

Kagura, who had also witnessed the fight with Ranna, merely described it as ‘pretty sick’.

Technically, with their common enemy dispatched, the alliance should have been officially disbanded that afternoon. That didn’t happen, though. Everyone was in way too good a mood to worry about everything that would entail. Instead, they gathered provisions in town and returned to their forest base for a victory party of epic proportions.

Hijikata took a pretty passive approach to the evening’s festivities. Exhausted as he was, he was more than happy to sit by and watch rather than join in.

At some point, Gintoki wandered over to where he was sitting against the wall, and slid down to sit next to him.

“Hi,” he said, with the biggest, goofiest smile on his face that Hijikata was pretty sure he’d ever seen.

“Hi,” Hijikata answered, smiling too.

“I’m pretty drunk right now.”

“I can see that.”

“You?”

“Just a little bit.”

“Chaperoning for someone, are you?”

“Yeah, you, apparently.”

Gintoki snorted. “How very chivalrous of you, Officer. ‘Zactly how drunk is ‘just a little bit’?”

“I don’t know. Not much.”

“Drunk enough for me to say something stupid, and then we can both forget about it in the morning?”

“Probably not.”

“Aww.”

“You should say it anyway.”

“Hrmmmmm.” 

Gintoki let his head drop down heavily onto Hijikata’s shoulder. Hijikata let it stay there.

“Well,” Gintoki said quietly after a moment, with as much drunken precision as he could muster, “you know. I think, that I mmmmmmight, _might_ , maybe, sorta be...falling for you.”

“....O-oh…”

“I think.”

“Are you being serious right now?”

“Oh, you’re surprised by that, are you? Imagine how shocked I was! Utterly and completely fucking _flabergasted_.”

“I don’t know what to say,” Hijikata confessed. “I mean, that’s-”

“You don’ have to say anything, Toshirou.”

“But-”

“It’s fine,” Gintoki insisted, pulling away from Hijikata and staggering to his feet once again, “I just figured you should know.”

The next morning, the spell was broken, and the alliance really did end. Katsura and his men left before dawn, disappeared back into the shadowy back alleys and hidden safehouses from which they had come. Monoda and her people packed up all their equipment and headed back to the hospital. The Shinsengumi and the Yorozuya parted ways not long after- the former to the business of tending to their prisoners and seeing what was to be done about their ruined headquarters, the latter to fetch Sadaharu and go home. Ranna’s ship was removed to the outskirts of town, and the people of Edo breathed a collective sigh of relief, knowing that, at least for the time being, it was safe to return to their normal daily lives.

After some debate, it was decided that the Shinsengumi would temporarily set up in a local convention center, while their new buildings were still being constructed. All the necessary arrangements were taken care of, and within a week they were fully back to normal operations, from patrolling to filing paperwork.

The subsequent return to almost-normalcy was a very busy time for Hijikata. Between directing his squad’s efforts in the field, filling out seemingly-endless reports on the whole Ranna situation, and supervising things at the construction site, he barely had any time to himself.

It was nearly three weeks before he saw Gintoki again. But when he did turn up, he did so with all of the unpredictable irony that Hijikata had come to expect from him.

“Heloooooo, Shinsengumi. What’s up? You all look great in hard hats, may I just say.”

“Gintoki?” Kondo said, looking up from the blueprints in front of him. “What are you doing here?”

“I got some news yesterday that I thought you might like to hear. Also, here, have a flier.”

“What news?”

“My client is opening up a new spa soon and is trying to get the word out, so tell your friends. They do massages, and everything.”

“Danna,” Okita said, rolling his eyes and taking the flier Gintoki held out to him, “what news?”

“Zura heard from one of his contacts that the people responsible for supplying Ranna with that fear gas have been caught, and their operations shut down.”

“Really? That’s great!”

“Yup, we can all sleep a little easier now.”

“In case you hadn’t heard, Ranna’s trial finished up a few days ago,” Hijikata said. “She got a life sentence.”

“Wow. Is that, like, normal for that kind of offense, or…?”

“She attacked a guard, you know,” Okita said. “Bit a chunk out of his ear.”

“Gross!”

“Yeah. I think maybe the judge was a little harsher on her because of that little incident. Still though, I’m sleeping all the better for that, too.”

“Hah, I guess you’re right. That’s one less worry off all of our shoulders.”

“Hey,” Hijikata said to Gintoki as Kondo and Okita both returned their attention to the blueprints, “I’ve been meaning to talk to you. You got a minute?”

“Sure.”

“Alright, uh...here, follow me for a sec.”

Hijikata led Gintoki across the street and into the shelter of a side alley, from which the noise of the construction was somewhat muffled.

“This isn’t about what I said that night at the party,” Gintoki asked awkwardly, “is it?”

“So you do remember that little conversation, then.”

“Despite all my best efforts to forget it, yes. Listen, I’m telling you, there’s nothing to talk about, we don’t need to-”

“Yes there is,” Hijikata insisted. “It’s not the sort of thing that you can just ignore, when someone says that to you, Gintoki, don’t you know that?”

“I’m great at ignoring things! So are you, I know this for a fact!”

“Will you just shut up for one moment and let me _talk_?”

Gintoki scowled and crossed his arms. “Ugh. Fine.”

“ _Thank_ you. Look, ok, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what you said. And, just...I don’t have too much experience with this kind of thing, you know? I’ve been picking myself apart trying to figure it all out. What would make you say that you liked me, and what exactly that made me feel in response-”

“Oh my god,” Gintoki muttered, dramatically raising his hands to cover his face.

“- and, like, all the other feelings involved there,” Hijikata continued stubbornly. “I still can’t really put all of it into words, but I just think...I mean, we’ve been through some real shit together. But, the bits outside of that, when things were just sort of calm...I don’t know. I think I’d like to get to know that part of you better.”

“I would pay money to not be having this conversation any more,” Gintoki said, his voice muffled. What little of his face was visible around his hands was flushed bright cherry red.

“Gintoki. I’m trying to tell you that I like you back.”

Gintoki lowered his hands and stared, wide-eyed at Hijikata for a second.

“... _Huh_. For real?”

“Oh, you’re surprised, are you?” Hijikata said, smiling in spite of himself. “Just imagine how I feel about it, you stupid idiot.”

“So, uh….uhhhhhh, we should get drinks sometime? Just you and me? That’s what people do on first dates, right?”

“I think so. I’ll be free Friday evening, if you want to, uh, meet up, I guess.”

“Yeah, I can do Friday. We should absolutely do that.”

“Hijikata-san!” Okita’s voice shouted from around the corner.

“Coming! I gotta go, Gintoki, but I’ll see you-”

“Wait, wait!” 

Gintoki reached out and grabbed Hijikata by the arm as he turned to head back to the construction site.

“What?”

“Seal it with a kiss?”

“Oh my g...You’re a child.”

“Yeah, maybe I am. Still think you want to get to know me better?”

Hijikata rolled his eyes, surreptitiously glanced back towards the mouth of the alley to make sure no one could see them, and leaned in to plant a quick kiss on Gintoki’s cheek. Then he pulled his arm out of the other man’s grip and hurried back in the direction of the construction site before Gintoki could react.

“Friday,” he called over his shoulder as he went, “seven o’clock!”

“It’s a date!” Gintoki called back, his face once more returned to its impossible shade of red.

Hijikata laughed, and jogged back across the street to where Kondo and Okita were waiting for him.

“You look awful cheerful all of a sudden,” Okita said, raising an eyebrow suspiciously.

“No idea what you mean, Sougo. Now, where were we?”

“Reviewing the floor plan one last time. Did you still want to put everything back just the way it was?”

“Hm. You know what, Kondo-san? I think I’ve changed my mind. Let’s try something new.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end! Hooray! I had sooooo much fun writing this one, really, it was great. Thank you all so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
